The posting of 17 June DNA Contractor appointed advised of the appointment of LGC Forensics to collect and analyse DNA samples from the remains of the British and Australian soldiers buried by the Germans at Pheasant Wood following the Battle of Fromelles in July 1916. If this proves viable, then DNA samples will be collected from potential descendants to match with samples from the soldiers. This posting gives more detail of the process and notes that media interest in the DNA analysis and identification process has also been growing with the LGC Forensics report on the viability of DNA profiling due this week. Clicking on each word that is italicised and underlined will take you through a link to additional information.
Photo: Steve Allen, Managing Director of LGC Logistics and David Richardson, Fromelles project manager acting for the British and Australian Governments, sign the contract. Behind, Peter Singh of the Australian High Commission and Tracey Vennai, United Kingdom [CWGC]
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s remembering Fromelles website announced that LGC Forensics wins Fromelles DNA contract and provided a link to the joint media release by the Australian Ministers Greg Combet, Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science, and Alan Griffin, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs. This media release was also carried on the Australian Army Fromelles website under the Resources tab.
DNA model [Source www.csb.yale.edu]
According to its website, LGC was founded in 1996 following the privatisation of the Laboratory of the Government Chemist and is now owned by the management and staff and funds managed by the investment group LGV Capital. LGC Forensics is one of its Divisions and one of its specialities is DNA profiling. The website indicates that LGC have developed a portfolio of DNA techniques that can use very small amounts of DNA and degraded DNA to establish DNA profiles which will presumably be relevant to the testing of DNA samples taken from the remains of the British and Australian soldiers buried by the Germans at Pheasant Wood following the Battle of Fromelles in July 1916.
From DNA analysis and Molecular Genealogy by Dr Peter Jones
An outline of the how DNA profiling is to be used to identify as many of the remains recovered at Fromelles as possible by determining if the DNA profile matches that of living relatives is available in the article DNA analysis and Molecular Genealogy by DNA expert Dr Peter Jones on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s remembering Fromelles website.
From DNA analysis and Molecular Genealogy by Dr Peter Jones
For those who wish to have further understanding of the use of DNA techniques, useful web sites include:
The International Society for Genetic Genealogy;
Kerchner’s DNA Testing & Genetic Genealogy Info and Resources Page;
Genetics & Genealogy – An Introduction With Some DNA Case Study Examples; and New Jersey State Police Office of Forensic Sciences.
LGC Forensics commenced a pilot study in early May to determine viability of the DNA in the remains and it is anticipated that the results of this pilot study will be available by the end of July 2009.
An important step in attempting to identify as many of the remains recovered at Fromelles as possible is to attempt to match the DNA profile with those of living relatives.
The Australian Army Fromelles website advises that “All registered relatives will soon receive a letter asking them to plot their position in the family tree of their relative who died in the Battle of Fromelles. This is so Army can ask the DNA experts to identify those relatives who will provide the best chance of a DNA match to a soldier from Pheasant Wood.”
There is much interest in this process and descendants have now been identified for more than 140 of the soldiers and efforts are continuing to trace and contact descendants. Many of these descendants have already provided this information to the Fromelles Descendants’ Database team and the Australian Fromelles Project Group has requested that descendants who have registered with Army should start gathering the necessary detail to complete this request so that this stage of the project can be completed as quickly as possible.
Media interest in the DNA analysis and identification process has also been growing as the LGC Forensics report on the viability of DNA profiling approaches.
DNA from old grave sites has an interview recording and transcript of the ABC Science Show interview with Dr Alan Cooper, Director for the Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide, 18 July. Dr Cooper specialises in the recovery of DNA from ancient human specimens and is concerned that an early deadline won’t allow complete analysis to be done.
Diggers’ smiles may help identify remains quotes Queensland-based forensic pathologist Professor Peter Ellis from Griffith University (Queensland), who has recently returned from assisting the team at Pheasant Wood confirming protocols and procedures. Professor Ellis indicated that photographs showing the smiles or teeth of British and Australian soldiers thought to be buried by the Germans at Pheasant Wood would be useful in helping to identify the soldiers. The soldier in the newspaper photograph is incorrectly named and is Private Clifford Dawson HOLLIDAY of the 54th Bn. Photographs of more than 80 of the 191 Australian soldiers on the Australian Fromelles Project Group “working list” are shown on the Fromelles Descendants’ Database website.
The article also quotes James Walker from LGC Forensics as saying that DNA profiles had already been recovered from some remains.
Fromelles relatives anxiously await DNA report in the Herald Sun by Neil Wilson and Charles Miranda, of 22 July notes that relatives of soldiers buried in WWI mass graves at Fromelles are anxiously awaiting a report on the viability of using DNA identification due within the next week and quotes the spokesman for the relatives, Melbourne-based Lambis Englezos as saying “We’re hoping that a high proportion of the remains found will have DNA traceable, so it can be matched with the descendants. These descendants are anxious this be possible before the bodies are due to be buried next July at a new cemetery in Fromelles – they don’t want anything rushed to meet that arbitrary deadline, they want proper burials with names.”
The results of the DNA analysis are also being watched from across the Tasman in New Zealand with the report in The Dominion Post DNA-to-identify-old-soldiers-remains.
*****
The Families and Friends of the First AIF thanks the Australian, UK and French governments for affording Australian and British soldiers buried in mass graves at Pheasant Wood by German soldiers following the Battle of Fromelles on 19/20 July 1916 dignified individual reburials in a new CWGC cemetery at Fromelles, and applauds the joint decision to DNA test the remains at exhumation and use every reasonable method to attempt identification of each soldier.